All students, including students with disabilities, participate in state accountability systems. Most students with disabilities participate in the regular assessment, with or without accommodations. Students with more significant cognitive disabilities participate in the alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). A…

The most recent federal effort to produce substantial improvement in student achievement scores, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), requires states and districts to ensure that all students are performing at proficient levels in reading and mathematics by the 2013-2014 school year. NCLB requires that each state and district have a single accountability…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) must use sampling techniques that produce data which are representative on national, state, and local levels. The validity of findings is enhanced when state and district comparisons are made. Multiple measures will allow the diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses. The data should be…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework for providing interventions and services at increasing levels of intensity until students succeed. The framework helps teachers and schools provide instruction and interventions matched to student needs, monitor progress frequently to guide decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and apply…

This document contains a brief summary of research on the Success for All comprehensive school reform program and the alignment document that outlines the correlation between Success for All and the objectives and outcomes described in the Stanford Achievement Test: Ninth Edition (SAT-9) as designed by Harcourt, Inc. Research has found Success for…

In fall 1998, the Maryland State Department of Education and six schools began a pilot program to evaluate the impact of serving breakfast to students in the classroom as part of the school day. Students in participating schools have an opportunity to eat breakfast in their classroom each day at no charge, regardless of family income. The program,…

This report reviews the national educational reform movement of the 1980's, with particular attention directed to seven states: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington. The first chapter provides background information on the educational reform movement. The second chapter focuses on the reform activities…

Maryland's School Improvement Through Instructional Process (SITIP) program involved 24 local education agencies (LEAs) in implementing one or more research-based instructional models: Active Teaching, Mastery Learning, Student Team Teaching, and Teaching Variables. A summary is presented of: (1) descriptions of each of the instructional models;…

Examines the relationship between statewide implementation of comprehensive guidance and counseling programs and indicators of success and safety for seventh graders (N=22,601). Students attending schools with more fully implemented comprehensive programs reported: feeling safer attending schools; having better relationships with their teachers;…

Examines the relationship between statewide implementation of comprehensive guidance and counseling programs and indicators of success and safety for seventh graders (N=22,601). Students attending schools with more fully implemented comprehensive programs reported: feeling safer attending schools; having better relationships with their teachers;…

This review of research connected to Project Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) is a summary of the project's ongoing work in the form of a letter from researchers to a hypothetical colleague. Project STAR has investigated the effect on student achievement and development of small classes in the primary grades (K through 3). A research…

In 1995, the Education Commission of the States released the first in a series of annual reports examining the progress of education reform. The report concluded that despite many encouraging signs of progress, American schools and students were losing ground. This 1996 report, the second in the series, summarizes data on student performance,…

The School Improvement Through Instructional Process (SITIP) Program, initiated in Maryland in 1980, was concerned with improving classroom and school activities through the application of process-product research on classroom and school effectiveness. All 24 local education agencies voluntarily implemented one or more of four research-based…

Presents a meta-analytic review of evaluations of state-funded preschool programs over 20 years. Identifies several methodological flaws but also suggests that pattern of findings offers modest support for positive impact in improving children's developmental competence, improving later school attendance and performance, and reducing subsequent…

This article reviews promises, practices, and provisos of alternative assessment as a basis for illustrating what is known about measuring progress of students with disabilities in statewide assessment programs. Nineteen data-based studies have been used to begin to document the effects of alternative assessment. However, it is concluded there are…